is firmly supporting its ally israel. peter baker was traveling with the president. peter, with all the changes in the region, how has the u.s. role changed in this process? >> well, of course, you saw president obama taking a very hands on role in this. something that he's been reluctant to do at times in the past. he had a bad experience trying to involve himself in peace making in the middle east in the beginning of his presidency. he grew a little disenchanted with how intransigent players were. he and netanyahu the prime minister of israel have a troublesome relationship to say the least. and yet he decided in this case he had to dir ctly dive in and making phone call after phone call. he's in and out of these asian summit meetings and grabbing the known to talk to netanyahu, talk to president morsi of egypt. and he recognizes something that almost every president eventually discovers which is that america is still indispensable player when it comes to these sort of conflicts in the middle east. pete: still the indispensable player and hasn't changed with the ar